The Old Shillelagh
349 Monroe StreetI’m lucky. I married a woman that likes baseball. Actually, I not only married a woman that likes baseball, but she really likes going to games.
In Kalamazoo, we’re pretty much equal distance from Chicago and Detroit, so we could go either way to see a game. We’re both White Sox fans so you’d think we’d just load up and go to Chicago one weekend to see a game at The Cell. I mean, we have family there, so we could do that too….but we like going to Detroit too, so when the Sox play the Tigers, we’d rather head east for a game….oh yeah, and it’s sooooooo much cheaper to go a game in Detroit.
The great thing about baseball in Detroit is that you don’t have to pay a ridiculous parking rate. In Chicago, the ballpark is in a not so great neighborhood and the only place to park is in lots owned by the club. They charge a ridiculous price then they have to add on city and county taxes, so it costs over $20 just to park. Near Comerica Park, there are several surface lots within walking distance vying for your business. We paid just $7 to park in Greektown and walked to the stadium from there. Read more…
Fast Trax Bar & Grill
6225 W. D AvenueReally liking this getting off at 7:00 on Saturday nights. I knew J and I were missing out on a lot. Now I’m really seeing that now that we can spend Saturday evening and all day Sunday together.
I actually got off an hour early on Saturday night, so I was back in Kalamazoo by 7:00. Since it was still pretty early, J wanted to go to dinner and she told me we could just go for pub food since it had been a while since we had done that.
About a month or so to go, I was driving down D Avenue in Alamo Township and came across an interesting looking restaurant. While the restaurant originally caught my attention, it was a sign near the edge of the property that was pointing to a bar that brought me back.
Fast Trax Bar & Grill is on D Avenue about a mile west of US-131. From the road, you don’t actually see the pub. What you see is the Club Car Restaurant. The bar is down the hill and behind the Club Car. There’s a sign out near the road that points you in the right direction. Read more…
Main Street Pub – Kalamazoo
4514 W. Main StreetStill getting used to working a normal five day work week. It’s been so long, but I’m not complaining. I’ve done alright in the interim. The thing that full time employment has really changed is our date night. We chose to do carry-out Saturday night and just cooked appetizers from a box on Sunday so if we were going to eat out this week, it was going to be lunch on Monday.
I was really wanting a burger. Surprisingly, it’s been quite a while since I’ve actually had one and J was alright with pub food. I had picked a place we had never been then checked reviews on Urbanspoon and there were a couple recent bad ones, so we decided to go somewhere else.
Not sure why it popped in to my head, but Main Street Pub was the place I thought of. We have always had good experiences at all of the Housler restaurants so I knew it was a pretty safe choice. Read more…
Press Release – Community Garden Grant Recipients
From a Fair Food Matters press release.
Fair Food Matters has announced recipients of its 2011 Community Garden Grants, funded by the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and Irving S. Gilmore Foundation.
To qualify, projects must be community (not private) gardens located within Kalamazoo County. The focus of the program is to provide healthy, fresh food to neighbors and friends; to encourage physical activity; and to strengthen neighborhoods by sharing work, food and fellowship.
The following 16 projects will receive grants ranging from $350 to $850 to purchase raised beds, plants and seeds, garden tools, fencing and other supplies:
- Beauty from Ashes Community Garden, West G Avenue at Waldorf Street, Kalamazoo
- Come-Union Garden, 532 Autumns Way, Kalamazoo
- Comstock Community Center, 6330 King Highway, Kalamazoo
- Downtown Kalamazoo Inc. Community Garden, corner of Rose and Lovell Streets, Kalamazoo
- Douglass Community Garden, 1000 West Paterson, Kalamazoo
- Edible Edison, 1607 Egleston Boulevard, Kalamazoo
- Historic Stuart Neighborhood Garden, 703 West Willard, Kalamazoo
- Ka’desh Community Garden, 1339 North Krom Street, Kalamazoo
- Kalamazoo Central High School Community Garden, 2432 North Drake Road, Kalamazoo
- Mt. Zion Community Garden, 120 Roberson Street, Kalamazoo
- Oakwood Community Garden, 2529 Springmont Avenue, Kalamazoo
- Parkwood-Upjohn Elementary School Garden, 2321 South Park Street, Kalamazoo
- Salvation Army Community Garden, 1700 Burdick Street, Kalamazoo
- Schoolcraft UMC Community Garden, US 131 at Clay Street, Schoolcraft (formerly Hoppy’s Garden store)
- Tree of Life Urban Garden, 111 Dixie Avenue, Kalamazoo
- Vine Neighborhood Community Garden, east side of Westnedge (between Dutton and Walnut).
Press Release – Millennium “Good Form Dining” Menus
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release….
Millennium Restaurant Group Locations to Feature “Good Form Dining” Menus
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Helping Kalamazoo gear up for the first ever Kalamazoo Marathon on May 8, 2011, the Chefs at Kalamazoo-based Millennium Restaurant Group have created special featured menus focused on the special nutrition runner’s need for endurance and strength. The special menus are available at the restaurants from April 13-May 7.
Each restaurant has a full featured menu with four-seven items, including:
Seared Salmon served on a bed of coconut rice with cucumber mango salsa and a carrot ginger puree, topped with chili dusted wontons
Iron is important to distance runners, with a daily goal of 8mg-18mg intake (the salmon alone can account for up for 20% of your Daily Value). The coconut also serves as a great source of fiber (many runners use coconut water was an alternative to a sports drink).
Banana Wrapped Sea Bass fresh sea bass steamed in a banana leaf with fresh Italian vegetables, and served on a bed of steamed rice
Sea Bass is a great lean source of protein and iron (which delivers oxygen to cells, keeping runners from feeling fatigued). Rice is also a GREAT sourse of those highly sought-after carbs.
Bison Burger char-grilled Bison burger on a cracked wheat bun topped with provolone, sautéed mushrooms, and red onions, served with sweet potato fries
Each serving of Bison contains more than 50% of your vitamin B12 needs & 30% of your needs for iron & zinc, necessary for muscle function and recovery. Mushrooms contain a rare antioxidant (L-ergothioneine) which fights off free-radical damage (great for post-run potassium)
Epic Bistro/Central City Tap House: menu starting Tuesday April 19
Otto’s Chicken served with black beans and wood-grilled vegetables
A 1-cup serving of black beans supplies over 25% of your Daily Value for protein, almost 60% of your fiber, and 20% for iron (which delivers oxygen to the cells, keeping runners from feeling fatigued). There’s also a great dose of carbs.
In addition to the featured “Good Form Dining” menus, each restaurant will offer runners of the Kalamazoo Marathon, Borgess Half Marathon, and Borgess 5K a special treat. The week following the race—May 9 through May 14—runners who bring in their race bib will receive 1% off their food for each mile they ran.
- 26% off for full Marathoners
- 13% off for half Marathoners
- 5% off for 5k runners (the restaurants will count kilometers rather than miles for this specific race)
Good Form Dining will be offered from April 13 through May 7 for runners to fuel up leading up to the Kalamazoo Marathon weekend. For more information about “Good Form Dining” or Millennium Restaurant Group, please visit us online at www.MillenniumRestaurants.com.
Chicken Coop – Plainwell
1175 M-89- Plainwell, MI 49080
- (269) 685-6213
- No Known Website
- No Online Menu
Man, have I been craving fried chicken. It’s been several weeks now and I haven’t been able to fill that craving. As far as I’ve been able to find, there really isn’t a lot of great chicken places in the area. Usually, I just go to the Chicken Coop, but there really isn’t one close anymore and when I would come home from work on Sunday nights, I didn’t pass anything that was open other than KFC.
I tried a few times to stop at the Chicken Coop in Plainwell, but they are closed on Sunday’s which left me craving chicken, but not wanting to drive any farther in to Kalamazoo than I had to.
Now that I’ve changed jobs, I actually get off at a decent time on Saturday nights. Instead of making the trip from GR to Kalmazoo at midnight, I leave Grand Rapids around 7:00 so J and I can actually do things on Saturday’s instead of just rewinding SNL to the beginning and lay on the couch.
Neither of us slept very well Friday night, so we decided to spend this first free Saturday night on the couch catching up on shows we DVR’d this week. Normally, we’d order a pizza, but I still had that chicken craving and told J I’d take a shot at actually finding the Plainwell Chicken Coop open. Read more…
Barista Blues West
402 S. Burdick StreetI’ve already mentioned that I started a new job last week. What that means, from an eating out perspective, is that Friday night is no longer date night. I’ll be working Friday nights, but I’ll have Saturday nights, Sunday, and Monday off which is much better than my old schedule.
Since we were out of town this weekend, our eating out in Kalamazoo day became Monday for lunch. When J got home from work, we needed to go grocery shopping, but both of our tummy’s were rumbling. J gave me the option to choose where I wanted to go which means I could have eaten any greasy thing I wanted, but instead, I decided to go somewhere I thought J would like.
Last week, when we went to Lenny’s Sub Shop, J said she wanted to go somewhere that offered something lighter than greasy bar food. It wasn’t until we already ordered and were sitting down at Lenny’s that I remembered a new place that opened in downtown Kalamazoo.
Barista Blues West takes up the corner space at Lovell and Burdick. The awnings still have the Good’wich logo, but there’s a sign board out front that advertises the day’s special and let’s you know there’s a new business in that location. If you’re wondering where the “West” part of the name comes from, J figured it out when she thought the name sounded familiar. The original store is in downtown Battle Creek. Read more…
Cottage Inn – Oshtemo Township
5038 W. KL AvenueEver have one of those nights you just want a pizza? Yeah, I get those often, but most of the time, I resist the urge to pick up the phone and take the easy way out. If I gave in every time I wanted a pizza, I’d be much fatter than I already am.
I do give in every now and then though and when I do give in, and I just want something quick from a delivery place, I go straight to Cottage Inn.
Cottage Inn became our go-to place when we lived in Lansing. I’m know I’ve explained this before, but the first couple times we ordered from Cottage Inn, we didn’t really like it. That’s because, we didn’t realize they had thin crust. Once J stumbled on the thin crust by accident, we went back time and time again.
When we lived off of Kilgore, we always used the Portage Road location. Now that we live on the west side of town, the closest Cottage Inn location is on KL Avenue in a shopping center on the corner of KL and Drake Road in Oshtemo Township. The store takes up the corner of the shopping center that also has the Big Burrito and 7-Eleven. Read more…
Lenny’s Sub Shop – Kalamazoo
3290 Stadium DriveSo, this is my last full day off before I go back to work full time. It’s been three years since I’ve known I was going to get 40 hours a week and get a paycheck every week. The time off has been nice, but stressing over work hasn’t been all that fun. I’ve done alright picking up freelance and part time work, but that can be really stressful.
I actually start my new job on Thursday but I have one more freelance gig tomorrow so J suggested going out for lunch today. We had to do some grocery shopping anyway, so I figured why not.
I was planning on driving to a bar and doing the pub food thing like we usually do, but J said she wanted something “lighter.” There’s really not much in Kalamazoo that is “lighter.” I really wish there were more deli’s and sandwich shops that aren’t chains so we can have some variety instead of going to the same place whenever we’re in the mood for sandwiches.
While there are chain sub shops on almost every corner in town, there is one chain that we’ve never been to. They actually have two locations in the Kalamazoo Metro. One is on Westnedge and Romence in Portage, but we chose the one on Stadium in Kalamazoo. Read more…
The Birdcage
2702 E. Main Street- Kalamazoo, MI 49048
- (269) 414-6441
- No Known Website
- Menu
It’s a quick bachelor weekend for me. J and her mom took a trip to Michigan City for a little shopping and a spa day at Blue Chip Casino. The unfortunate thing, for me, is that the night they were gone, I was at work, so I didn’t get to take advantage and eat all the crap I don’t like to eat when J is here.
I did get at least one meal by myself and I decided to run across town to pick up some BBQ from a place I just recently learned about after seeing a couple reviews on Urbanspoon.
The Birdcage is a small BBQ joint located inside the Eastwood Market on Main Street in Kalamazoo Township. A few weeks ago when I drove by, the only telltale sign was a neon sign in the window that said BBQ and the smoker out in the parking lot. Today when I pulled in to the parking lot, I noticed a big white van with the company logo on the sign and a large sign hanging above the entrance advertising the restaurant.
When I opened the door to the market, I was immediately hit by the smell of that sweet, sweet smoke. It would be hell if I had to work in the market and smell that all day. No one way I would be able to resist. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 
